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This resonates with me. I can't have relaxing hobbies: I take them up, find some measurable/competitive/social aspect in them, smash my way from "rookie" to "ad

This resonates with me. I can't have relaxing hobbies: I take them up, find some measurable/competitive/social aspect in them, smash my way from "rookie" to "advanced beginner" to "top 20 percentile" in very little time and then agonize about the ensuing plateau and how getting into the top 1% would require complete dedication or might be realistically out of reach for me. By that time I stop enjoying doing whatever the thing is. Not fun anymore. People will sincerely praise me and it will feel empty because I know there are millions of better painters, my laptimes are a full second off the ultimate pace, my guitar skills only good enough for playing alone in my office, my leisure programming projects all pointless and abandoned. I envy two kinds of people: those that have found some thing they are very good at and keep enjoying it forever, but also those that can enjoy something for years even if they are realistically mediocre at it and never improve. And the money making part is also true for me. I took up miniature painting and quite soon was at the level where people will pay you decent money to paint their miniatures for them. I started getting offers and accepted one, not for the money, probably just out of pride. It was complete hell, I hated the result and every minute I spent painting it. The client was happy, me, I guess I learned my lesson: never again.

bayindirh 2y ago
Why not apply kaizen to your hobbies? 1. Do the best you can. 2. Identify the weakest part of the artifact you just made. 3. Design an improvement to that part only. 4. GOTO 1. This will make you cherish the progress and only "compete" with yourself, on your terms.
_glass 2y ago
Thanks for giving me ideas to add to my 200 hobbies, miniature painting it is. I even have an app (Streaks) that reminds me daily of thousands of things I want to do, and it just shows how unrealistic it is. I want to concentrate on just two things, but then I hate to plateau on the other skill. Right now I concentrate on guitar and trumpet. But my painting and drawing skills are really not that good anymore. I try to also publish some academic papers, repair my bike, lift weights, run, get better at theorem proving, read into all of the social sciences, read philosophy (Kant, Hegel), experiment with Arduino, build a repertoire in Rebetiko ... If you find a trick to just do one things, tell me.
helboi4 2y ago
Bruh I am this exact same person. I am mediocre enough at everything I do to impress laymen but leave me feeling like shit because I know anyone who knows the craft will think I suck. I have the ability to learn up to intermediate stage of pretty much anything way faster than most people but I just stress myself out and there's always other fish in the sea for me.

bayindirh 2y ago

Why not apply kaizen to your hobbies? 1. Do the best you can. 2. Identify the weakest part of the artifact you just made. 3. Design an improvement to that part only. 4. GOTO 1. This will make you cherish the progress and only "compete" with yourself, on your terms.

_glass 2y ago

Thanks for giving me ideas to add to my 200 hobbies, miniature painting it is. I even have an app (Streaks) that reminds me daily of thousands of things I want to do, and it just shows how unrealistic it is. I want to concentrate on just two things, but then I hate to plateau on the other skill. Right now I concentrate on guitar and trumpet. But my painting and drawing skills are really not that good anymore. I try to also publish some academic papers, repair my bike, lift weights, run, get better at theorem proving, read into all of the social sciences, read philosophy (Kant, Hegel), experiment with Arduino, build a repertoire in Rebetiko ... If you find a trick to just do one things, tell me.

helboi4 2y ago

Bruh I am this exact same person. I am mediocre enough at everything I do to impress laymen but leave me feeling like shit because I know anyone who knows the craft will think I suck. I have the ability to learn up to intermediate stage of pretty much anything way faster than most people but I just stress myself out and there's always other fish in the sea for me.